Approach:
The pathogenesis of disease caused by swine viral pathogens will be investigated in swine disease models to investigate methods of intervention. Animal experiments conducted involve one of four general designs: 1) disease pathogenesis and transmission studies, 2) vaccine efficacy studies, 3) neonatal studies, and 4) a gnotobiotic model in sterile-filtered pig isolators to study the effects of a single pathogen on the pig. Knowledge obtained will be applied to break the cycle of transmission of these swine pathogens through development of better vaccines or other novel intervention strategies. A major research approach will be the use of reverse engineering and infectious clones to identify virulence components of each virus under study through mutational studies. Development of vaccines that provide better cross-protective immunity than what is currently available with today’s vaccines will be approached through vaccine vector platform development, attenuated strains for vaccines and other novel technologies. A key approach in the study of disease pathogenesis is to better understand the host response to viral infection to various viruses. This research on comparative host transcriptomics will provide insights on viral pathogenesis and possible virulence factors that will enable rational design of more effective vaccines and target possible novel intervention strategies.